The Social Impacts of Electronic Mail in Organizations: A case study of electronic power games using communication genres

This paper investigates the effects of the introduction of electronic mail on organizational structure and power. It provides empirical support to the view that technology, organizational context, and individual actors interact to shape the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their effect on organizations. Through an analysis of power games reflected in the progressive constitution of electronic mail genres, it illustrates in particular how the specific organizational configurations in which technology is deployed deeply influence its ultimate use. Far from transforming an organization, it appears that the introduction of electronic communication tools may in certain circumstances help reinforce an organization's preexisting structure.     

Socio‐Emotional Context and Adolescents' Decision Making: The Experience of Regret and Relief After Social Comparison

Many studies indicate that adolescents are hypersensitive to rewards in salient socio‐emotional contexts. However, little is known about adolescents' sensitivity to complex negative emotions. To study the development of the ability to experience regret and relief, children, adolescents, and young adults performed a gambling task in a socio‐emotional context of competition, in which they were informed that their outcome would be compared with that of a competitor. The context of competition impacted the feelings of regret and relief in adolescents. When adolescents experienced an initial negative outcome, their feeling of relief was reinforced. However, they did not seem to experience regret in the social context of competition. These results provide a possible explanation for adolescents' enhanced risk seeking.     

Effects of sleep inertia on cognitive performance following a 1-hour nap

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of a 1-h nap on subsequent performance in spatial memory (SM) and logical reasoning (LR) tasks. The objective was to evaluate the duration of the effects of sleep inertia (SI). The performance was measured in two independent groups of subjects. The 1-h nap took place at 00:00 h in group 1 and at 03:00 h in group 2. In each task, the experimental design comprised one no-nap condition in which subjects had no sleep before the night tests, and a nap condition that comprised the 1-h nap followed by the test sessions. To measure the duration of SI effects, the subjects were tested in two 30-min sessions and the data in each session were analysed in sub-units of time of 3 min each. In each task the results showed no effects on accuracy, and no circadian effects of napping were found. In each task, analyses of pooled data of the two groups showed that the performance in the 1-h nap condition exhibited significant reductions of speed immediately following awakening, when compared with no-nap, reflecting SI effects. In SM, the slowing lasted 24 min, and 27 min in LR. Practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Risk and choice: A research saga

The economic theory of decision making under risk has seen remarkable advances over the 50 years since Pratt’s (1964) characterization of risk aversion under expected utility. We review developments in three key areas to which Louis Eeckhoudt has made significant contributions: (1) increases in risk and risk taking; (2) self-protection and risk aversion; and (3) higher (and lower) order derivatives of utility. For each, we identify seminal papers, puzzles, and recent developments. The saga of research on these topics reveals that important contributions were made long ago and yet significant gains in understanding continue to be made. Recent advances often have roots in early results and researchers can profit by examining the old as well as the new papers.     

Some reflections on song theory,signed song and traditional song

In this article I will aim to present results of research which deals with the French word ‘chanson’ and song theory. My observations will be conducted within a metalinguistic and a linguistic corpora. My corpora was largely constituted by works published in France in addition to other countries in Europe. The study of European dictionaries has shown me how important the French song culture has become in German dictionaries (in which chansonnier and chanson de geste sometimes appear) and in Italian dictionaries (in which chansonnier as a synomym of cantaautore appears). This presentation contains some diachronical and theoretical observations. The research appears to be the first significant research conducted about the vocabulary of song in French. This will finally lead us to present the theoretical vocabulary that we have created to study song phenomena.     

Hair color and wages: Waitresses with blond hair have more fun

The effect of employees’ hair color on wages was experimentally tested in a tipping context. Waitresses in several restaurants were instructed to wear blond, red, brown or dark colored wigs. The effect of hair color on tipping according to patron's gender was measured. It was found that waitresses wearing blond wigs received more tips but only with male's patrons. Waitresses’ hair color had no effect on females’ tipping behavior.